What or who got you into Iron Maiden?

I heard of this song doing the rounds called "Running Free". I quite liked it and brought the single*. I then played the B-Side# (Burning Ambition), well I was sold. Brought the album then saw them live. The rest is history.


*In a black sleeve, not the picture sleeve.


#a B-Side is what you had when you turned the piece of vynil over.
 
It took me a couple of years to get into Iron Maiden. It started one October of 1994 when my friend was playing "Number of the Beast" and I said "whoa, what is this?" He just showed me the "Number of the Beast" cassette and I was amazed. I was 15 years old at the time. At the time I was still getting into metal and I started out with Ozzy-era Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne solo, and Metallica's Black album, though "Ride the Lightning" is my favorite Metallica album and has been for the last twenty years. I saw the music video to "From Here to Eternity" in December of the same year The next summer my friend gave me the "Killers" cassette and I got into some songs but at the time I was still heavily into Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne but I was getting into Dio, the Dio-era Black Sabbath albums, the Born Again album with Ian, and the Tony Martin-era albums. In February of 1996 my friend gave me a cassette with Somewhere In Time copied on it but also with the Somewhere In Time artwork . I listened to the first half then one day I when I was sick and at home from school I listened to "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" and I looked at the artwork. I was so impressed I was dumbfounded! I hoped to see them live with Bruce rejoining the band someday. I pictured myself at a Maiden show somewhere in a futuristic version of Asia but Alexander the Great made me want to visit Greece again. I bought the albums in strange order and fast forward to now and I had achieved my dream of seeing Iron Maiden in Asia after seeing them in Shanghai and I saw them again last summer in Mansfield, Massachusetts. I've seen Maiden seven times by now :D
 
I was working and run to the hills came on the radio. I was like wow they are great. My work mate brought in a cassette a couple of days later that he had made up for me. It contained Saxon Priest Motorhead and Maiden songs. I went out that weekend and spent up. Bought first two Maiden albums plus Saxon Motorhead and Priest. Annoyed the hell out of my little brother who hated it. He got into bangles and five star!!
 
I was in the Square shopping centre in Tallaght back in 1991, and I seen the cover for Somewhere in Time in a T-shirt printing shop and I was just blown away with it. So I got my dad to ask one of the staff to make a photocopy of it, and that's were my real obsession with Eddie began. I just couldn't get over the detail and the overall design of it. Later on I bought a tape of Somewhere in Time from a friend, so that's when I first heard them. The music of course lived up to the cover art, but I was very disappointed with size of the cover because it was so small. It wasn't until 2003 that I finally found a second hand vinyl copy Somewhere in Time in second hand music shop that I was really happy. The new 2014 version of Somewhere in Time vinyl cover is actually a bit blurred, and not as clear as the original.
 
I was in my Primary School... I heard that particular song, called Dream of Mirrors on our national radio station. It became the Hit of the Week. It really got me with it's melody and power, but still I tried to convince myself that I didn't like it at all, because it was so long. Now, that song is in my Top 5. Then I met the geezer who gave me his Fear of The Dark tape and so the story began. That summer, a friend of mine bought me A Real Live One tape and everything else is history.. Interesting, though, Fear is nowadays one of my least favourite albums...
 
I was randomly listening to a couple of songs on YT when suddenly a friend of mine gave me a link. The Trooper.
 
It was April 2009. I was already into bands like Guns N' Roses and AC/DC thanks to Terminator 2 and Iron Man. Then one day my not-into-metal-at-all mother turned to me and said "You like your hard rock, do you listen to Iron Maiden?"

I didn't, but as soon as I was back at my computer I was on YouTube blaring Run to the Hills. A while later, even though I only knew a handful of songs, I was already calling Maiden my favourite band.
 
Air guitar contest in 1983. I did Highway to Hell. Some other dude did Run to the Hills. Now, I won the contest but as soon as we were done, I said “isnt that Iron Maiden”?
He told me it was and I took the 10 bucks I won and bought Number of the Beast the next day on cassette. Then a few weeks later Piece of Mind was released and that was it for me.
 
I actually got into IM by sight first in 1982. At a Rainbow Records, I saw the t-shirt, and fell in love with the artwork. One week later, I returned with my allowance, and bought the LP. After hearing the introduction to TNOTB, it was love at first listen.
 
After my parents divorce father bought me linkin Park album and maiden single. I told him to return linkin Park and bring me album of this Iron Maiden band. He bought me No prayer - my first and favorite to this day Maiden album.
 
After we moved a year ago my dad gave me all his records. He had Live after Death, I knew Run to the Hills but that was it, so I listened to it start to finish, week later bought the Somewhere Back In Time CD, and then proceeded to purchase the classic albums. Now I'm only missing the Blaze era
 
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